RootsTech 2024 was an amazing experience. Being there in person meant that I was able to see many friends and colleagues in person, which was a gift. From planned meetups to bumping into people in the expo hall, at the FamilySearch Library, and while walking from place to place in the Salt Palace, each time I saw a friend, it was exciting.
Teaching
I had a great time teaching my classes, Climbing Your Branch of the FamilySearch Family Tree and Writing Your Family History: 5 Strategies for Greater Efficiency. It was fun to teach in person – you can read the audience so much better than in online classes or webinars. It was also fun to hear from those who had watched my live-streamed class–Climbing Your Branch of the FamilySearch Family Tree–from all over the world. That one was recorded and if you missed it, you can watch it here.
Classes
I wasn’t able to attend many classes due to my teaching, media, and expo hall booth duties. One that I did prioritize attending was Judy Russell’s Deemed a Runaway: Black Laws of the North. The information she presented is applicable to my work in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. If you missed this class and are interested in the content, you can download the syllabus here. It includes an overview of the laws and a robust bibliography that includes links to each northern state’s historical laws online.
The other classes I attended were mostly the Main Stage Forums: The FamilySearch Tech Forum, The Impact Forum, etc. These were great sessions. You can watch the recordings online.
Exciting Announcements
The FamilySearch tech forum included some exciting announcements. One of these was the introduction of FamilySearch labs, accessible on the home page of FamilySearch after logging in. Scroll down until you see the FamilySearch Labs box on the right and click View Experiments. You will next see five current experiments, including Full-Text Search, Family Group Trees, the new FamilySearch AI Helper, the new Together by FamilySearch app, and the ability to view a quality score for some profiles.
Full-Text Search
Full Text search is the item I am most excited about. It provides the ability to perform a full-text search of documents that have not yet been indexed. This is made possible by AI, which has been used to create full-text transcriptions of the available items. One major collection is available for United States researchers: United States Land and Probate Records. I have already been using full-text search on these records and have found it to be a huge time saver for finding records in these unindexed collections. I was also able to easily trace the migration of a research subject into another county–something that would have taken hours and hours using the land indexes for every county that neighbored his last known residence.
There are several articles and videos about the value of this new feature and how to use it effectively. Here are a few:
Unlock the Power of Full-Text Searching for Historical Records, a FamilySearch YouTube video.
12 Strategies for Using FamilySearch Full-Text Search by Kimberly Powell
Gamechanger!!! by Judy Russell
Testing the Full Text Search in FamilySearch Labs – An Immediate Success! by Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings
Family Group Trees
I am also excited about the ability to work on living people within a family group with Family Group Trees. I haven’t had a lot of time to experiment with this one yet, but I plan on it!
Keynote Speakers
I didn’t make it to all the keynote speakers because I had a couple of other conflicts. But I DID make it to Kristin Chenoweth. WOW! If you missed her session, go watch it. It was SO good! I loved her singing and also her adoption story and her connection with her three moms.
The Expo Hall
It was fun to hang out in the expo hall and talk with different people. I had a personalized tutorial from Leah Larkin about a new tool called BanyanDNA, which I am so excited to use. I bumped into several friends throughout the hall all three days. I also stopped to listen to some of the new DNA features Ancestry is introducing. You can learn more about them here. I also enjoyed meeting people as I worked at the FamilyLocket and Utah Genealogical Association booths.
Looking Ahead to RootsTech 2025
RootsTech went by so quickly! I’m already excited for RootsTech 2025, which will be held March 6-8 in Salt Lake City. I hope to see you there! What were your favorite parts of RootsTech 2024?
Thanks Alice!!!